Jim Ingraham: How about an Indians' trade for Cliff Lee?

Suppose Cliff Lee becomes available in a trade. Would the Indians be interested, or is that categorically out of the question?

Probably, but at the end of last season how likely did it seem that the Indians would spend $104 million on two free-agent outfielders?

The Lee situation in Philadelphia has a lot of moving parts, and so does the Indians' situation in Cleveland. However, it is possible to construct a scenario in which the Indians might have an interest in their former Cy Young Award winner.

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The biggest issue with Lee, obviously, is the reason the Indians traded him in the first place -- money.

Lee makes a lot of it: $25 million this year, $25 million next year, $25 million in 2015. There's also a $27.5 million option for 2016 which becomes guaranteed if he's not on the disabled list at the end of the 2015 with an elbow or shoulder injury, and if he pitches 200 innings in 2015 or 400 innings in 2014-2015. Otherwise, there is a $12.5 million buyout on that option.

If Lee is traded, the acquiring team would be responsible for the $12 million remaining on his salary this year, plus $50 million guaranteed over the next two years, plus, at minimum, the $12.5 million buyout on the option year. So the acquiring team would basically be assuming a $2 1/2 year, $75 million contract, or, if the entire 2016 option kicks in, a 3 1/2 year, $89 million contract.

On the other hand, that's a significant discount from Lee's original contract with the Phillies, a five-year, $120 million deal.

There will be other starting pitchers available at the trade deadline, but Lee -- assuming the floundering, aging, payroll-bloated Phillies are so inclined -- would clearly be the pick of the litter.

For now, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is talking the good talk.

"The best chance we have to be a winning club now and in the future," he said recently in a TV interview in Philadelphia, "is to have the top of the rotation we have, with those two big left-handers (Lee and Cole Hamels). That's our best chance to win games. That's what we're in the business of doing.

"People think we're going to blow up this team. We're never going to be in a position of blowing up. There's no blowing up. There might come a time when we make changes to improve for the future, but we don't have a reason to blow it up. Boston didn't blow it up last year. They retooled. That's the challenge we have."

Amaro isn't just blowing smoke. Should the Phillies keep him, Lee's big contract becomes slightly more palatable for the team next year, because Roy Halladay's three-year, $60 million deal expires after this season. Given his physical issues and age, even if he's brought back, it will likely be for far less money.

Hamels, on the other hand, is in the first year of a mammoth, untradeable six-year, $144 million deal.

Lee, who is 8-2 with a 2.55 ERA and career-low 0.977 WHIP, has a limited no-trade clause in his contract but he also wants to win, and would likely waive the no-trade if offered the chance to go to a contender.

Are the Indians that? Check back as the July 31 trade deadline nears.

Could the Indians afford Lee? Probably not. On the other hand, that $89 million commitment a team would assume by trading for Lee is negotiable. Say, for example, if the Indians, in addition to simply taking that contract off the Phillies' hands, agreed to include their top prospect, Francisco Lindor, in the deal if the Phillies agreed to pay a percentage of the money still owed Lee -- say $25 million -- maybe that greases the wheels of the deal-making machine.

It's also true that some expensive contracts might disappear from the Indians' payroll after this season, contracts such as Chris Perez ($7.3 million this year), Asdrubal Cabrera ($10 million next year), Ubaldo Jimenez ($8 million club option next year), and Brett Myers ($7 million this year), to name a few.

On the other hand of the other hand, maybe a team that is a better bet for the postseason than the Indians, and with a bigger appetite for assuming bigger contracts, and a more stacked minor-league system with which to sweeten the deal -- maybe that team wants Lee, if available, in which case the Indians would have no chance.

Or maybe the Indians simply want nothing to do with that contract, even if it gave them a true No. 1 starter and exponentially improved their chances of winning the division or a wild card berth into the postseason -- speaking of Fantasyland.